McMurdo Station transportation

During the cold season there is trails and even airstrips on the ice of Ross Sound, which, when frozen over, limits access to the small harbor in Winter Quarters Bay.

Ships may need an icebreaker to get to McMurdo station, and ground transport may utilize snow tires, tracks, and sleds.

Extremely cold temperatures and continuous darkness during the polar night can complicate operating aircraft.

[1] The word Terra is the name of the snow bus made by the company Foremost, and this type of vehicle is also used in the Canadian arctic.

It is an extreme-duty tri-axle bus with very large tires, and Ivan is powered by a 300 hp Cat engine, and it can normally transport 56 people at 25 mph.

[2] Ford E-Series vans, modified for the conditions including a 20-speed transmission and snow tired, powered by a 7.3 Liter Turbodiesel V-8 is also used in both 4x4 and 6x6 versions.

[3] Also Ford E-250 and 350 superduty trucks are used, and, again have to be modified and change is to put heaters on most components, and snow tired or track wheels.

It has reduced the number of flights to the South Pole, by enabling the bulk transport and fuel and cargo across the surface, and has also been used for adventuring records.

[18] For Operation Deep Freeze 2025, the ship Ocean Gladiator brought supplies to McMurdo Station for the 2024–2025 season, arriving in late January 2025.

Aircraft are important part of the supply chain to McMurdo, for example, in 2021–2022 Operation Deep Freeze brought in 100 personnel and nearly 50 thousand pounds of food by air.